Understanding the Perspectives of Sexual Minorities

​This session brought together activists and representatives of collectives of sex workers and sexual minorities, children of sex workers, a transgender, a Hijra and a lawyer, all in one panel. The session was opened with great enthusiasm by the powerful elocution of the facilitator Amit Kumar from All India Network of Sex Workers (AINSW).The session had five speakers Ms. Kusum (President, All India Network of Sex Workers), Ms. Seema (Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee or DMSC), Maya Urmi Aher (Pehchan), Sintu Bagui (ANANDAM), and Tripti Tandon (Lawyers Collective).Kusum, President, All India Association of Sex Workers, began by posing a question to the audience – What comes to their mind when they think of sex workers? Who are these women? Why do they do this work? Are they a stain on society? Are they spoiling the society? Should we be ending sex work? Students responded in different ways, some expressed that sex workers were not evil or a stain, but some are forced into sex work. Another student expressed how she used to think that sex workers were not good women, but when she went into red light areas, she realized how hard they work and they are also like others, trying to fend for their families. Ms Kusum clarified that not all sex workers are forced into sex work. Some do it of their own volition, while some are forced by circumstances. She stressed that most sex workers are happy doing this work. She emphasized that they do not do anything wrong – they don’t steal from anyone, they don’t force people to come.

They only provide a service – somewhat like a doctor. People come to them voluntarily, some seek them out. Sex workers solicit in different ways – some stand on the streets, others are home-based. Not all of them are ‘out’. Some sex workers hide the fact that they do this work because of the stigma attached to it as well. In fact some families also don’t know that women do sex work. Further, Kusum described how sex workers are exploited especially by the government and the police. She explained that the government as well as general people look for all sorts of ways to evict them – sometimes they build schools or mandirs near brothels and then expect sex workers to leave. Why do they not do a survey of the area before building schools and mandirs instead? It is only to harass sex workers. She also explained how as per policy, a child who is over 18 years of age is separated from the mother if she is a sex worker. When sex workers are raped no one believes them. In contrast to how society and police react when ‘respectable’ women are raped, the treatment given to sex workers is appalling. The police will say ‘Why did she solicit sex? It is her fault she asked for it’, as if a sex worker being raped is less reprehensible than any other woman being raped.Kusum narrated how these problems faced by sex workers led to the formation of the All India Sex Workers Alliance. It is a network of 30 CBOs working with sex workers, who advocate collectively for their rights and against harmful government policies. It arose from the need to support each other and also advocate for the rights of their children.Kusum then went on to describe the positive role that sex workers have played in government programs, especially in controlling HIV. As a result of their involvement, prevalence of HIV among sex workers is even less than the general population. Sex workers consider it their responsibility to inform their clients that they have to protect themselves. She said that the government has utilized sex workers to control HIV and we have cooperated with them. But if sex workers go to the government and ask for pension, the govt will say “madam you have earned so much why do you need a pension”. Why is that the case? Sex workers are also citizens of this country like others. They should get the same rights. Kusum ended by encouraging people to help eliminate the stigma around sex work. She encouraged them to join to struggle to decriminalize sex work and speak to people in their homes, schools about the issue and why it is important. It is important to bring the issue out in to the open and talk freely about it – “baat karne se baat banti hai”.Seema, Durbar Mahila Samanvay Committee (DMSC) began by talking about the origins of the Durbar for sex workers which operates in Sonagachi. It began in reaction to the exploitation by police, who used to pick up sex workers and drive customers away. So they came together to defend and support each other.One of the major contributions of the Darbar has been to create a bank to collect their money. The need for this arose because the police used to raid brothels and loot all the money. So sex workers decided to start their own bank, called the USHA multipurpose cooperative society in Sonagachhi. It has only sex workers money and has a turnover of Rs 21 crore annually. Seema then went on to talk about how DMSC has established an anti-sex trafficking ‘self-regulatory board’ constituted by sex workers, who themselves monitor if young girls are being forced into prostitution. They operate in 76 brothels since 1995, and have assisted the government with rescue of 1200 girls so far.She ended by saying that sex workers must be given the rights of an entrepreneur. “Someone who drives a car, has a store, does some business is recognized as an entrepreneur. We also do hard work and we also have clients. If the government accepts them as workers, they should also accept us. The first step towards this would be to decriminalize the work that we do.”MayaUrmi Aher belongs to the Hijra community and works with an organization called Pehchaan on the rights of Hijras. Through her talk, Maya provided the audience with a sense of what it means to live as a Hijra. She first clarified that Hijras and transgenders are different. Hijra is a distinct community with its own rules and customs. All transgenders are not Hijras. In common parlance, Hijra is used as a gali, especially to put down men. People have different experiences and perceptions of Hijras. Many people consider them dangerous and violent. That might be true for some people, but all Hijras are not like that. In fact sometimes when you see a Hijra ‘misbehaving’, consider that it might be a defence mechanism for the every aggression that they face. Maya narrated the kinds of troubles she faces in everyday life. For instance, in a metro, usually no one will occupy the seat next to her as if they will catch some infection from her. She urged the audience to imagine what it must feel like to live as an outcaste. The very blatant discrimination faced by the community is one of the reasons why they are not able to get an education, because schools and students don’t treat them well. She gave her own example – she is an MBA, but she did her course by correspondence because she could not face the everyday humiliation of going to college. She said that even though she is speaking at a panel here in Miranda House, she could never imagine being able to study here.Maya explained how discrimination and harassment has become a part of Hijra lives. Sexual assault is extremely common, and especially by police. She recounted how she herself had been raped by police while standing on the road and soliciting. She was doing it because no one would give her work and so her only options were to beg on the street, or dance in a bar, or solicit sex on the street. She was picked up by the police who did not charge her with anything but instead raped her.While common people say all sorts of things about Hijras, and their peculiar occupations, there is a need to understand why they resort to these. “No one will hire Hijras even as a house-worker. If I open a parlour, they will say I am doing sex work under the pretext of a parlour. If I start a dance class, who will send their children to me?” Even when they go to doctors, they treat them but don’t touch them. Is that how anyone should be treated?Lastly, Maya spoke of the NALSA judgment which has recognized a ‘third gender’. But she describes it as an ‘incomplete judgment’, because even though the law recognizes a third gender, it does not accept their sexual behaviour. Section 377 is still not decriminalized.Sintu Bagui (ANANDAM), said she is the child of a sex worker and spoke about her life as a sex worker's child and also as a transgender person. She described how in sex worker families, it is assumed that the daughter of a sex worker will be a sex worker and a son will perhaps be a ‘dalal’ (pimp). But sex workers have other aspirations – they want to educate their children, they want them to have dreams and accomplish their dreams. But society does not allow this to happen. Sex worker’s children face discrimination from various quarters. “Teachers look at us and say vaishya ka ladka hai. When we used to go for durga puja we were not allowed to mingle with other children. When I was small I used to think why was I born in such a place where my identity is so stigmatized. We used to tell our mother leave this work we will go somewhere else. Then we realized that our mother is working hard and she is doing a lot to raise us. Why can we not be proud of this?”

It was to respond to these problems that DMSC started a sex-workers' children's organizations. The organization works to encourage education, especially girls' education. They counsel students to study as much as they want and to pursue their dreams. Some children want to be police because they see police raiding the brothels! Others have aspirations such as wanting to become football players. In fact some have even become part of football teams and one is being mentored by Manchester United. “We want our children to play in the world cup!” she said.The work has been able to show sex workers children that they too have a life and they can also fulfil their dreams like other children.Tripti Tandon, Lawyers Collective, spoke of how we understand sex work to be a very gendered phenomenon. We believe that men seek sex outside of marriage and that is the basis of sex work. It feeds hetero-normative notions that the man is always out on the prowl looking for women to have sex with, and women will ‘offer’ the sex and hence they are subjugated in sex work. This is also why a lot of feminists also believe sex work to be oppressive by definition. Now that we have a greater understanding of LGBT rights we must also understand sexual diversity – she said that if a traditional institution like marriage can be opened up, then why can’t the conversation about sex work? Why can’t we broaden our understanding of sex workers? A lot of transgender persons are sex workers, but policies look at the sex worker as a woman. IPTA is gender neutral, but government policies do nothing for men and transgender sex workers. There are no protections for them. In the past, Tripti explained, that transgenders in our country were part of society with distinct roles - they were managers of the king’s harems, strategists accompanying the king and so on. Those roles were because the hijra was considered asexual and so they were put into these ‘safe’ roles like managing the harem. So traditionally, the hijra has been seen as asexual. The NALSA judgment also follows this tradition – it recognizes transgender persons, but wants them to continue being asexual. Even while doing advocacy, the government is open to giving them rights now, but they don’t want to acknowledge them as sexual beings and are unwilling to decriminalize their sexual behaviour. She ended by urging the audience to think beyond the binaries of gender and look at sexual diversity in its myriad forms – whether it is the recognition of transgender persons, or sex workers.